Again, The Water Flows
by VoidWarriorAral
Summary: AU in the Waterfall village. Perhaps Takigakure can gain a place at the top of the rest of the minor hidden villages, and prove it can be counted among the great villages?
1. Chapter 1

Academy graduation time is one of the busiest times of the year for prospective jonin senseis. They would all be preparing training schedules, and learning as much as they could about the ninjas that could be their students, given that they passed the evaluations that had been crafted by those same jonin.

One such jonin had just been given the profiles of his three students and was currently reading them over on his way to training ground 7. He was a tall man, with messy, shoulder-length, brown hair. Out of all of the jonin in Takigakure, he was one of the youngest at about 21 years, though that did not exclude him from taking on a genin team, as he had put in his name to be considered for the position of a jonin instructor the year before.

Yoshiro was reading over his students' ninja profiles, and nothing really stood out to him as being all that important. First off were the Academy descriptions of their behavior. Judging from what they said, Yoshiro determined that: Ryo was usually lost in class, but had decent grades. Ichiro was rather standoffish, and had the best grades of the three. Akane was outgoing and friendly, though she had the worst grades. Yoshiro groaned, for it did not seem as though the three would be able to get along and become a team.

"Hmm, I wonder. What kind of tests should I give those three?" He asked himself, stroking his chin. It was a strange sight because he was standing in the middle of the street, and people were walking through the street. "Hey, snap out of it Yoshiro!" yelled a voice from the crowd that was familiar to him. It was another one of the jonin seneseis that was chosen for the graduating class at the academy, Rina.

"Uh, hey Rina, did you get your team assignment?" Yoshiro responded, scratching the back of his neck nervously while stepping out of the way of the traffic. He then fell into pace with her as they were headed in the same direction.

"Yeah, I've got the triplets." Rina responded. At that Yoshiro instantly looked more down than usual.

"No fair!" Yoshiro responded sounding maybe a little childish, but he did not care for Rina was one of his friends among the jonin population of the village. "I got Ichiro, Akane, and Ryo." he said defeatedly, "I'm going to have to work at getting the three of them to actually work together as a team."

"Haha, that'll be the easiest part of my job. I just have to get them to actually take being a ninja seriously." Rina mocked, before being punched lightly in the arm. "Hey, that hurt." She protested.

"Well I wouldn't have punched you if you didn't mock me." Yoshiro countered.

"Oh, did you figure out what test you wanted to give to your students?" Rina asked. "Because I have a few good ideas." This reminded Yoshiro that he was supposed to have thought of this prior to today, as he was going to meet his students in a few hours. "No. I was just thinking about it earlier. I'm not sure what they would be good at. Their descriptions from the academy didn't tell me much in the way of their abilities. I'm going to have to ask the leader of the village to change that eventually, if he'll even listen to me."

"Well, there are the basic team focuses you could test them for. Infiltration and Assasination, Assault, and Tracking. However, you're going to have to come up with a substitute for a tracking team, as we never really built dedicated tracker teams in recent years."

"Alright, I'm going to go set up my tests now. I hope I see you around the village again." Yoshiro replied, ready to finish what he was supposed to have already finished.

"With our teams doing D-ranks, most likely." And with that they both parted ways.

4:50 Training Ground 7

A single jonin was laying in the middle of a clearing in one of the many forests around the village. He was simply watching the clouds as they passed by in the sky as he was trying to pass the time. _I wonder_ he thought, _can the three of them pull together to make fine waterfall shinobi?_ Eventually, he had gotten bored. He decided to get up and stand near one of the trees in the clearing.

"Alright, my genin students had better be getting here shortly." Yoshiro groaned to himself, "I thought I told them to get here earlier, and we'd start at 5."

At that, a rustle from the forest, and a few arguments over whether or not they were lost had interrupted the status quo Yoshiro had become acquainted with. This prompted him to have second thoughts about taking on a genin team for the year, as it seemed they could not even work together to get their way through the forest to the clearing in the middle of the training ground. In his mind, they were currently hopeless. Though, that was not entirely true, if they were not able to pass, then they would be hopeless.

Three ninjas emerged from the forest in front of Yoshiro, and their full appearances were made known to him.

On the left was Ryo, wearing a dark blue jacket and light blue shirt with black ninja pants. From what Yoshiro was told, he had started dying his short and spiky hair blue the year before. His eyes were a light brown and were very non-descript. His tool pouch was taped onto his left leg, indicating to Yoshiro that he was left-handed. Aside from wearing his forehead-protector around his neck, the only other feature that stood out to the jonin was the set of bracelets he wore on his right wrist. He was going to have to ask about those. He was the shortest out of the three.

Ichiro was on the left, and wore a mask on his face, covering up almost everything below his eyes. He also had hair longer than Yoshiro's, which the brown-haired sensei did not approve of, however most of it was tied up behind his head, though a few strands managed to get themselves in his face. His eyes were a piercing green. He wore a black short-sleeve jacket, with a teal long-sleeve shirt underneath, with dark grey pants. He wore his forehead-protector in what was considered the "standard" position, covering the forehead. He did not have any extra clothing features that stood out to Yoshiro. He was the tallest out of the three

Lastly, in the center, was Akane. Instead of a dress, she wore a long shirt that reached past her waist by several centimeters. Her shirt was dark blue, and wore white pants. She also did not wear sleeves. Her hair was a light orange; shorter than Ichiro's, but longer than Yoshiro's, though she just wore it in a single bun on the back of her head. Her eyes were an icy blue. She wore her forehead protector and tool pouch in the same manner that Ichiro did, but most ninja did so. She also wore a green scarf around her neck, though Yoshiro would have to ask to figure out what it meant, if anything.

To Yoshiro, the three of them were bickering too much for him to continue to stay laying down in the clearing, so he sat up and leaned against one of the trees, taking in the amusing sight, as he watched the team that would become his provided it passed the test he conjured up for them.

"Alright, we're here. Thanks a lot Akane, we're late." Ryo jabbed, sarcastically.

The first voice was the short one, Ryo, he remembered. Yoshiro believed he was going to have troubles with that one. Though, immediately afterward came a voice that was just as grating to him right now, having been forced out of his earlier relaxed mood.

"Oh, yeah. If it weren't for your constant insistence that we were lost, we wouldn't have gotten here as soon as we did." Akane corrected, caustically.

"We would still be lost if it weren't for Ichiro." Ryo countered, angrily.

Ichiro finally pitched in with a groan, and mutterings under his breath, obviously late to the conversation.

"You'd have been in our position too if you hadn't been here before." Ryo chided, clearly unhappy.

Ichiro just sighed in response as a gesture that he conceded with the point that Ryo had made.

 _It is overall an interesting group_ , Yoshiro thought to himself. _Let's see here, from what I remember correctly from the ninja reports sent to me from the academy_ :  
 _-Akane is the daughter of merchants. She should have good chakra control. If she passes, I'll consider signing her up for an apprenticeship with one of the medics at the hospital. Currently she is focusing on Taijutsu. I don't think the Waterfall has had a Taijutsu specialist in a while, though expanding her abilities into other areas would help her become a better shinobi.  
-Ryo is a bit enthusiastic and perhaps a bit off. He is the son of one of our Chuunin and a restaurant owner. I guess one of them had to be a little off. So far, it appears that Ryo has not done much aside from the basic academy skills. He needs to distinguish himself if he is to get anywhere without making Akane and Ichiro pull him everywhere._

 _-Ichiro is a mystery to most of the teachers, barely speaks, and when he does, it is soft and quiet making it hard to understand. Nobody is really sure where he came from, but he showed up at the orphanage one day at the age of 5 with two scrolls, a ninjutsu scroll and a note. He told the caretaker that both of the scrolls were for him, and after showing he could perform the jutsu, was signed up for the academy._

"Alright! Enough! We are going to get a few things set out right now." Yoshiro yelled, cutting through the noise. "You shinies think you are so important just because you got some fancy forehead protector from the academy instructor, well you're not. It only gets harder from here on in. You can either keep going, moving forward, or you just stay in the same place, never seeing past the horizon."

"Yoshiro, what's that have to do with our test?" asked Akane, confusion evident on her face.

"Simply this, if you keep treating the world like you did during the academy years, your chance of dying in the field greatly increases. You can either start taking things seriously, or strive to become something, or you can die a genin." Yoshiro explained. His words seemed to take effect as his team began to have a more serious look on their face. He visibly relaxed before speaking again.

"Alright, good. We're going to begin with a few questions about you three: What do you like? What do you dislike? What are some of your hobbies? Do you have any dreams about the future?" A silence then fell over the group as nobody really wanted to go first. "Ryo, you can go first."

"But we don't know anything about you." Protested Ryo.

"My name is Yoshiro. I like my friends and this village, and dislike those people who would try to hurt either one. My hobbies are watching the clouds, and reading. My dream is none of your business, shinies." Yoshiro responded, almost bored, though uttering the last word with a bit of distaste. "Your turn."

'Shinies' is a term used by most jonin instructors in the waterfall village to refer to their new genin squads as a reference to the fact that their forehead protectors were still new and shiny, which gives rise to the term used. The genin therefore, payed no mind to it and were inclined to follow his instructions.

"I like the stars, mushrooms, and sleeping. I dislike being told what to do, having to wake up early, and fish. My hobbies include studying and collecting fungus, and gardening. I have a dream for the future, but I don't exactly want to share."

"Alright, that's fine Ryo. Akane. You go next." Yoshiro said, expecting an answer

"I like sunsets, uh… training, and the sound of songbirds. I dislike Shizuka, snakes, and that weird teal-haired girl who always hangs out by the giant tree in the middle of town. My hobbies are training, and bird-watching. My dream for the future is to become a great ninja of Takigakure." Akane answered a little nervously to admit such things in front of the boys on her team.

"That is actually the village's jinchuriki." Yoshiro explained. "She's here because out of all the small nations, Takigakure was the strongest, and because of our contribution during the last ninja world war." Yoshiro elucidated. "However, I wouldn't get too friendly with her, jinchuriki have a tendency of being unstable. Let's start moving on, so that we can finally start the test I had planned for you guys." Yoshiro exhaled.

To most onlookers, it would seem as though he wouldn't talk, however that was because he was wearing a mask. He took a breath before beginning to speak. "… My name is Ichiro. I like fish, masks and the calm air sitting out alone near the river. I dislike having to speak for no reason, being mistaken for a girl."

This caused Ryo and Akane to giggle a little, for they remembered the reaction their new teacher had when he was put in charge of their class. "… and I hate Iwagakure, and frogs. I don't really have a lot of hobbies. And my dream for the future is to avenge my parents' death by becoming someone they would be proud of. I also would like to find my brother." He spoke softly and with an even tone, not used to speaking very much.

This, however, came as a shock to both of his teammates. They did not know that he was an orphan, or that he had a brother somewhere.

"Wow, Ichiro, four sentences. I'm surprised!" Akane bursted out. "Normally you only respond with one, and it's a short one. By the way, who is this brother you wanted to find?"

To this, Ichiro simply shrugged, clearly not wanting to elaborate any further over what was already said.

Then Yoshiro's voice cut through the silence.

"Having heard you speak of yourselves, this is my impression of you three: Except for Akane, you guys aren't taking this seriously." He said gravely, then continued to explain "If you joke around too much it will get you killed and you will not be able to fulfill your dreams. I know too many ninja who lost their lives in the line of duty to not be serious about taking this seriously. Time for the test."

"But, then what's the test for?" Ryo asked.

"That's to actually assess your skills." Yoshiro answered plainly. "This first part was to assess your _attitude._ " There was then a pause in the air. "Alright, I think I've wasted enough time." Yoshiro began, much to the chagrin of his students. "The test is this: You are to retrieve a scroll I have planted somewhere in the village. That's it. Now there are several components to this test, and if I were to tell you, that would be too easy. The one thing I can give you is a clue. ' _Another clue will be provided when you reach the place from which sprouts our protection_ '… Alright. Good luck. See you in six hours." And with that, Yoshiro waved at them with a smirk on his face before disappearing in a shunshin.

Three ninja are seen running through the waterfall village trying to figure out what the clue was supposed to mean. Right now they were debating between the many waterfalls that surrounded the village, or the great tree that was located in the center.

"… but Yoshiro said something about sprouts." Ryo groaned, frustrated with the fact he and Ichiro were following her.

"You know, you two can find the scroll on your own, and it was about 'the defense of the village' and not about baby trees." Akane debated, clearly not understanding the point of the test.

"Oh yeah? Well, that's just what I'm going to do. Come on Ichiro." Ryo said, trying to drag his teammate with him to the great tree that lies in the center of the village. Ichiro eventually gave up resisting, and let Ryo drag him toward his destination.

"But the village is defended by the complicated series of waterfalls and thickets that surround the village." Akane tried counter, but Ryo and Ichiro were already gone, so she decided to follow after them.

When they got to the great tree that the city had been built around, the sheer size of it shocked Ichiro and Ryo into speechlessness, but Ichiro hardly said anything most of the time anyway. They then proceeded to try to climb up into the taller portions of the tree, but did not succeed for they had not yet learned the climbing technique and there were not any branches in between them and the part with the foliage.

"We really only get to see it from far away. Here, it's bigger than everything." Ryo said, trying to explain what he was feeling in the presence of such a large object, to which Ichiro simply nodded in agreement. All the while, Ryo was still pondering the concept of the tree inside is head. _Perspective really is a transformative thing, had I not grown up in the village, I may not have thought that a tree could grow so large. Wait… someone's coming._

They were then pulled out of their episode when Akane joined them, and confusion flashed on her face for a bit when she noticed that Ryo was looking at her, despite her attempts to surprise them.

"I thought that you weren't going to listen to me, and try to help me find it!" Akane shouted. "And, by the way, how were you able to know I was coming.

"Yeah, but you told me to go away and try to find it by myself. Make up your mind. And as for your question, I have sensor abilities, so I could sense your chakra as you approached." Ryo responded, annoyed at Akane for having asked a personal question.

Ichiro, who had not spoken until know, brought up a very important issue that they had since been ignoring. "We don't know each other's abilities. We need to."

"Right now were going to have to look for the scroll, because we don't have time to discuss our abilities for the team, as we need to be able to pass Yoshiro's test first." By now, Akane was furious, and both Ichiro and Ryo became hesitant to respond to her in this emotional condition, out of fear that the situation could get worse.

"We… could… try to… use my sensor ability." Ryo stumbled out, the words choked by the fear.

"Then do it. Stop wasting time." Ichro commanded, punctuating every word.

"Alright, no need to be so cruel about it." Ryo responded.

Yoshiro was chuckling to himself as he was lying in the clearing of training ground 7 while his team of hopeful genin was running around trying to figure out what his test meant. _I wonder if they've figured it out yet, the real test is going to be a battle against me. This 'test' really does make team focusing simple._

In the hidden waterfall village, team focuses were something that determined the basic functionality of a team of ninja. Basic teams would be focused around a single goal, and more advanced teams could be built based around a combination of the members of specifically trained basic teams. The simple teams are as follows, Tracking, Assault, Infiltration/Espionage, Assassination, and Protection.

A tracking team would consist of multiple sensor and scouting ninja able to pinpoint the location of an enemy, and then pursue it. The team would then engage the target, and then detain them. An assault team, on the other hand, would be built to consist purely of ninja focused in dealing damage, and would be able to take down targets effectively. The opposite of the assault team is the protection team, dedicated to absorbing damage instead of dealing out damage. Infiltration and Assassination teams are more similar to one another, however one is used to gain knowledge while the other is used to silence people who might share that same knowledge with someone else or to take out high value targets.

Now, these are only the basic teams, and the members of those teams can be reassigned to create a team that can perform multiple different actions based on what it needs. In this way, a small village like the hidden waterfall can utilize versatility to its full potential as it is unable to muster a similarly large amount of ninjas as one of the great ninja villages. This also allows a unit to experience fewer losses than would be expected of those nations in similar situations.

 _It has been at least an hour or two, I should probably check on their progress soon to make sure that they've gotten to at least the second scroll, and moved on to the next part._

With that thought, the jonin stood up, brushed himself off, and disappeared in a swirl of leaves, only to reappear somewhere in the village, not too far off from where his students had been arguing mere moments before.

"Then get on with it Ryo, I'm tired of standing around" said Akane, angrily.

"Alright, alright, I'm on it." Ryo assured before focusing his chakra with his hands in the half-ram seal to focus his chakra. Some time passed before Ryo spoke up again, during which his teammates waited, watching him closely. "Alright, the scroll is over there," he said pointing in some seemingly random direction to Ichiro and Akane. "And our sensei seems to be watching us from over there." He finished pointing in another direction. "Remember that I'm still trying to figure this out, so the maximum range I can use this technique is maybe 100m." He added as casually as he could to the end of the statement so that it didn't seem he was unconfident in his abilities.

"Well… maybe he's just watching. Let's get the scroll." Akane said.

"Right, let's go." Ryo agreed.

And so the three ninja headed out to where Ryo said the scroll was located. Upon reaching it, they quickly realized it was buried underground.

"Oh no, how are we supposed to get it now?!" Akane groaned. "This is your fault Yoshiro." She yelled to where she thought her future sensei was.

In fact their sensei had actually gone back to his cloud-watching, and was chuckling to himself due to his anticipation of their frustration, as he had no other obligations to fulfill for the rest of the day.

"Let's see… anybody know some Earth style ninjutsu, otherwise we're going to be reduced to digging it out with our hands?" Ryo asked with a hopeful tone.

Ichiro was the one to speak up: "I do, but I can only use it once."

"Get on with it" chorused Akane and Ryo together, for they did not want to spend any time digging around in the earth.

Instead of a spoken response, Ichiro began to form the hand-signs to cast the only earth style jutsu he knew of.

"Earth Style: Swimming Fish jutsu." Ichiro intoned, loud enough for only himself to hear before beginning to sink into the ground. This motion startled his teammates but they quickly realized it was part of the intended earth style jutsu.

Several tense seconds passed before Ichiro began to resurface out of the ground, and it appeared as if he was growing out of the ground to his two teammates.

"I need to get used to that jutsu." Ichiro said weakly, as he had used a lot of chakra.

"Yeah, no kidding. What's it say?" Akane asked jokingly

"You've managed to get this far, good. There's another part of the test. You need to get another scroll, but this one is guarded. Go to the eighth training ground." Ichiro read, but then immediately continued. "Training ground eight is next to seven, let's go."

At that, the three ninjas began to run across the rooftops back towards the training ground that had come from earlier.

The trio was careful not to rush into the engagement for they did not know anything about the location, ability, or appearance of the guards.

"Alright, where to?" Ryo asked, curiously.

"There." Ichiro responded, pointing to training ground 8. "We need a plan."

"Well you could use that freaky earth jutsu from before, and then…" Akane began, before she got cut off.

"No. Not enough Chakra." Ichiro interrupted. "New plan."

"Did either of you bring ninja tools?" Ryo asked.

"Yes. Did you think this was going to be an easy test? Of course Yoshiro would have us do something like this." Akane berated.

Ichiro did not answer.

"I'm going to need some kunai and exploding tags to make this work. I can sense the chakra of three ninjas up ahead, just follow my lead." Ryo started

"But what if you get caught?" Akane asked.

"The mission is to retrieve the scroll, I just have to keep them on my tail long enough for you two to get the scroll and get out." Ryo answered, receiving the kunai from Akane.

"Alright. I'll help if needed" Ichiro said, expressing his agreement before handing Ryo the exploding tags.

The three ninja who Yoshiro had _persuaded_ to help him with testing his potential students were hoping that guarding the third scroll would be easy, but right now the task just seemed boring. They were three chunin who had been on missions under Yoshiro before, and owed him a favor.

"Come on Shin," groaned one of those three chunin. "we should just go home."

"Nah, we only need to wait until they activate the traps Kumiko." The one who had been called Shin replied.  
"Will you two be quiet, we're doing this as a favor for Yoshiro. Please take this seriously." The third one of the group demanded.

"Okay, we understand Haro." They responded dejectedly before resuming their guarding positions around the small dais that held the scroll.

The three chunin then returned to guarding the scroll in their triangular formation, watching the treeline in anticipation for any movement.

Then, that's when it started. Three kunai with exploding tags came of the trees toward them and they promptly exploded.

Only Ryo came out of the trees in challenge to the three chunin, expecting them to give chase. However, this was not the case, and Ryo was left confused.

"Their job is to guard it, idiot. They're not going to move out of the way unless the scroll itself comes under direct threat." Akane said from the trees.

"You come up with a better plan then." Ryo replied, readying more kunai with exploding tags.

"Fine." Akane answered somewhat patronizingly "I'll do it, just to prove I'm better than you at this."

"I'll go engage them myself, and you provide cover with explosions." Akane explained, confident in her plan.

"Just like Ryo's, it won't work." Ichiro added with a bored tone.

"Shut up Ichiro, it has to work." Akane finished, before jumping out of the woods herself. She then began to charge at the three chunin, and engaged one of them in taijutsu, then tried to lead them away from the forest, however they did not give chase, and remained in place.

"Well, Ichiro, you have any bright ideas." Akane asked, panting.

"Surround them." Ichiro simply replied.

The genin trio began to surround the trio of chunin, and were waiting to see what happens next.

"What if we destroy the scroll?" Ryo asked.

"Well, then we're screwed." Akane answered.

"On my mark …." Ichiro began, readying his senbon needles. "Now!" He yelled, unleashing the weapons while Ryo and Akane threw a mixture of kunai and shuriken.

This caused the three chunin to begin to take the battle seriously, as they each broke off the holding position, and proceeded to engage one of the genin, pairing off and engaging in battle.

Ichiro engaged Haro. _I cannot battle this guy up close, I need to keep my distance, however we need to get the scroll somehow. I wonder whether Yoshiro allowed them to use ninjutsu._ Ichiro thought, while trying to stay out of reach of the chunin, throwing needles at him.

Haro then stopped before weaving hand signs. To Ichiro, he appeared to be preparing to shoot something out of his mouth. _Water Style, water bomb_ he thought before shooting a jet of water out of his mouth towards Ichiro.

Ichiro dodged the attack before heading into the woods, Haro chasing after him.

 _So Yoshiro did allow it._ I chiro thought to himself, trying to think of a plan to get the scroll.

"Face it kid, your team is divided so you have no chance of getting to that scroll." Haro yelled in a direction, looking through the trees to find the genin.

Akane's battle wasn't looking to well for her. She was trying everything she could to land a hit on the opposing ninja, and was unable to as she was obviously far less skilled than the chunin at what she had prided herself in. _This isn't going too well,_ she thought to herself, _I'm going to have to retreat into the forest where there's more cover._

In moving the fight towards the forest, she figured that she would be able to stay hidden long enough to get an opening so she could get to the scroll.

To say that Ryo was having a tough time would be an understatement. He was losing, and badly. He was up against the last chunin, Kimiko and all of his attacks were easily read as he was simply using the academy techniques.

"Look kid, don't take this personally, but you're not very interesting." Kumiko remarked before flipping him around and throwing him into the ground knocking him out. The chunin then picked him up and tied him to a nearby tree. Afterwards, she began to head back to the scroll, and in seeing that her two companions had run off she let out a groan. _Shin and Haro are pretty hot-headed. I'm not sure how those two keep getting teamed up with me, or even how they even passed the chunin exams._ She thought to herself.

Just then, what appeared to be Shin ran out of the trees towards her, and took up a defensive position on the other side of the dais by her.

"Took you long enough. Did she beat you up?" She asked sarcastically

"Don't worry about it, it's all taken care of." 'Shin' replied dismissively.

Instead of trying to defeat her opponent, Akane decided to take advantage of the situation by using a transformation jutsu to try and trick her way to the scroll.

"Well, Haro's still looking for that last brat." Kumiko said. "So don't feel too bad about it."

At that she turned her focus back again to where she thought Haro would be hiding in the trees, and simply waited for him to return.

Akane knew that she had to take advantage of the situation somehow, though she wasn't sure if she would be able to get out of there in time. _If only I knew Ichiro's special transportation ninjutsu._ She thought to herself.

This left the three genin in a predicament. Ryo was tied up, Ichiro was nowhere to be found, and Akane was so close to the objective, that she was literally right next to it.

Ichiro was currently waiting, just like Akane, for the right time to move. From his place in the trees, he can see where Haro, 'Shin', and Kumiko were. None of the ninjas were moving, as they were all anticipating, or planning some kind of maneuver to unfold, and the tension was building.

He had tried to come up with a plan, but they all ended up with getting overwhelmed by all three of them.

Then there was the unknown to both parties. The last chunin, who was Shin.

The fact remained that nobody was sure where Shin actually was during those tense moments, save for Shin himself. And even then, he wasn't sure where he was.

"Well, alright, time to head back." He said to himself. "Now, where did that girl go, hm?"

He had found himself on the bank of a river, so he figured that he was going the wrong way. "Crap, too far, I hope she didn't pull anything while I was gone" he said upon the realization of how far away he was from the clearing. He then began to run as quickly as he could back to where his chunin teammates were.

A figure began to walk out of the trees to the left of where Kumiko thought that Haro would still be hiding, and the movement caught her eyes, and then she became confused when she discovered that it was Shin because she thought that Shin was right behind her. This meant that either this Shin was the fake, or the other one.

Looking behind her, she noticed that 'Shin' was still there, and had pulled out a kunai to help protect the scroll, so she concluded that the one who was coming now was the imposter.

Turning back forward, she pulled out a kunai of her own, and twirled it in her hand a few times before getting into a ready position.

"Hey, what's the big idea!?" Shin shouted. "That's her behind you."

"Nice try kid, you're going to have to better than that." Kumiko responded before rushing towards him.

 _Crap. I haven't said anything yet to make her believe that I'm the real one. What do I do now, hm?_ He thought to himself before trying to throw some shuriken at Akane, who was now running away with the scroll as she had decided that Kumiko would commit to attacking her own teammate.

"Haro, now would be the time to help me and Kumiko." Shin yelled.

At this, Kumiko realized that only the real Shin would know the names of both her and Haro. She gave up attacking, and turned around to reveal that the scroll and Akane were gone.

"Help me find Haro." She groaned angrily before storming off.  
"What's got you all concerned, hm?" Shin replied before following her.

"Outsmarted by that kid. Great. I was counting on your verbal tic to help me through this Shin." Kumiko grumbled while walking through the forest. "They've completed the exercise. We can go home Shin."

"Well, at least Yoshiro promised to pay for dinner today, but we'll have to report to him on their abilities." Shin replied.

Just then, Haro shouted back to them. "I thought the two of you would have had this under control, considering I trust you on your own while the three of us go on _our_ missions."

"But you're here in the forest, and you didn't return to the dais like the plan." Shin replied, angry at Haro who was supposed to be their team leader. "Perhaps Kumiko should be team leader, hm?"

"Well I just recently tied up this last brat," Haro countered. "He was more concerned with trying to get away from me than he was about his teammates or even the mission."

Ichiro just glared at him, unable to get free.

"However," He continued. "he put up a good fight and kept me on my feet the whole time, even got a few needles in me."

"Let's leave them in this condition, Akane, our mission is done here." Haro replied, content that at least Ichiro could be molded into a good ninja.

The three chunin then jumped up into the branches, before heading back towards the village to find both a restaurant and wait for the potential sensei for the three genin hopefuls.

This left Akane alone in the woods with the scroll, unable to find her teammates. She looked up to the sky and thought 'Alright we apparently still have 4 more hours left to complete the test.' She began to open the scroll to read it, and what was on it was surprising to her: "You have completed your test. You are now ready to head back to training ground 7 to report back to me."

"Yoshiro, you're pretty weird." She grumbled.

"Hey, Akane, you can untie me now." Ryo yelled from behind her. She was unable to see him, as he was quite some distance away.

"Where are you?" Akane yelled back to where she heard Ryo's voice from.

"Uhhh, just try to follow my voice." He responded, as he was unsure how to relay where he was in relation to her.

Akane was traversing the area for a while before coming to where she thought Ryo's voice was coming from.

"Alright you found me. Good job. Now can you cut me loose now?" Ryo pleaded.

"Fine. Fine. Don't worry about it." Akane replied a little angry because Ryo wouldn't give her directions. "Know where the mask guy is?"

"Ichiro?" Ryo asked, stretching his body, having been restrained for some time.

"Yeah, that guy." Akane responded.

"He's too far away right now. Let's cross the clearing and see if he's over there." Ryo suggested.

The two of them began to head over towards their third comrade.

Ichiro was not having a good day: he didn't get the scroll, he was about ready to pass out from using up too much chakra along with his stamina running low, and he was unable to live up to the expectation he thought that the three chunin had.

He was quite shocked when his teammates jumped down in front of him, and could only stare at them with a blank expression on his face.

"Yo Ichiro, we've come to cut you free. Test's over." Ryo informed. "We've gotta get back to the training ground seven to report to Yoshiro sensei."

Ichiro responded with a nod, acknowledging his teammate's idea.


	2. Chapter 2

"Hey you three, how was the test?" Yoshiro asked his three students with a cheery tone that sounded annoying to his three students.

"You didn't get lost did you? The last few prospective students were unable to find the first scroll or even take the second. You three shinies have far more guts and abilities than those other brats had. You passed the skill evaluation test." Yoshiro continued to explain, with a neutral tone.

"Does that mean we get to be put into your team now?" Ryo asked, ready to be considered a ninja by the village.

"No, I'm afraid it doesn't," Yoshiro responded. "You still have to come back tomorrow to take the team-work evaluation that assesses your ability to function on a team effectively. Meet me back here in the morning, at… let's say, 8 o'clock?"

"Man, that's earlier than waking up for the academy." The person to speak was Ryo again, complaining about how he wanted to sleep in.

"Alright 7 in the morning it is." Yoshiro quickly appended, drawing the ire of Ichiro and Akane towards Ryo.

"But…" Ryo started again, before being interrupted by Akane, who was trying to speak without grinding her teeth. "We'd be happy to show up at 7, Yoshiro sensei."

"Oh, that's good. I thought you wanted to sleep in more." Yoshiro said, clearly messing with his students. (To a third party at least). And then, after a moment of silence, Yoshiro finished speaking. "Seeing as there aren't any more questions, I guess I'll be off then, good luck." And with those words, he left his students.

"He did this to us again. He keeps leaving so suddenly without any sort of warning." Akane groaned, but began to lay down as the exhaustion from the day set in.

"Akane… Ichiro's asleep and I don't know where he lives." Ryo said, worried, seeing as Ichiro was somehow sleeping while still sitting down.

"Look, We'll just have to ask around I guess, can you carry him?" Akane replied, prepared to take him home.

"I could use some help here, Akane." Ryo grunted, trying to lift the third member of their team. "Why is he so heavy?"

"Maybe you could use a workout or something, Ryo." Akane mocked. "You don't seem that strong in the first place."

"Yeah, yeah. Are you helping me or not? Ichiro needs to go home." Ryo retorted, trying to lift him on his back.

"Here, I'll carry Ichiro. You can do whatever it is you do, and we'll find out where he lives." Akane commanded, taking Ichiro and lifting him up onto her back, before trying to mock Ryo again. "For a guy, you're pretty weak. Are you going to let a girl upstage you like that?"

This struck a chord with Ryo, as he felt belittled by the more experienced ninja, causing him to retaliate. "Shut up, we need to take the mask guy home first. He takes priority right now." Afterwards, Ryo began to run off towards the shinobi district of the village.

Knowing that Ryo was right, Akane took their third teammate, and then began to follow after Ryo.

First they checked the lower district, where shinobi who were orphans lived. They had yet to have a family, and had begun living on their own instead of having to rely on the orphanage and the academy, but this was all providing that they could become a ninja after the academy. If they did not however, they would be put up for adoption into a civilian family, or even forced into the labor force at a young age to meet the demands of the village.

The two ninjas who had been a part of Ichiro's team had thought that he was from here because they never saw his parents, and had heard that his brother had gone missing when he was told during class. However, they were unable to find very many people who recognized him, and even then, nobody knew where he lived.

From there, they went and checked middle town, the largest part of the Shinobi district where most of the ninjas lived, and was one of the busiest places in the entire village, for a large portion of the village's businesses and economy ran through this portion of the city. While there was also the civilian district, which held a large amount of shops and businesses, the shinobi district also held certain services that would be unavailable to the regular civilians such as a blacksmith or clothing store specifically geared towards shinobi.

"Akane, let's check out the upper district, I've never been there." Ryo suggested, though he seriously doubted they would find anybody. "If we can't find anything, we can still find the academy teachers. They must know where the guy runs off to."

Akane could only groan, knowing that she would be getting a good night sleep because she was definitely tired from carrying her teammate around along with having to run around the village from earlier.

While in the uptown they had seen things they had never seen before, a large assortment of upper-class businesses and culture, though the snide looks they were being given didn't really make the people seem all too friendly to the children.

One such individual walked into their path. This caused Akane, who was still holding Ichiro at the time, to stumble and fall over, dropping the older boy. Ryo just stumbled back a step before regaining his balance. He was rather short for his age, but was still much older than any of the genin were. "Where are you headed to? Got someplace to be?" He spoke hurriedly, clearly in a hurry to wherever it was he needed to go. "You don't seem to be from this part of the city."

"Well, that's because we're trying to find out where our friend lives." Akane spoke up before Ryo even got a chance to talk. She felt a little uncomfortable referring to Ichiro as a friend, as she knew next to nothing about him.

"Ah, I see. That's very kind of you to do, but you might want to look elsewhere. He isn't from around here. I wish I could talk more, but right now I'm late." The man replied, before leaving them to their own devices.

It turns out that Ichiro was awakened by being jostled from Akane having fallen. As he was known as a quiet man, he did not make a sound and simply tried to find out where he was. Judging by the buildings, he was in the uptown district, where all of the rich people lived. He remembered when his grandfather took him here a while ago because he wanted to see parts of the city.

He then heard a voice, male, and it was groaning. "Where do we go now?" he groaned, clearly tired by the day's events. "There's the civilian district." Akane added. "We could always check there. Remember that Ichiro doesn't …" She started before Ichiro responded with a grunt, so she stopped talking. This startled both of his teammates as they thought that he was still sleeping.

"Good. You're up. You can tell us where you live so we can take you home next time if needed. That is, if we manage to pass tomorrow morning." Akane relayed to her oldest teammate.

"Oh. I live in the civilian district with my grandfather." Ichiro simply replied.

"We'll just follow you home then." Akane said.

And with that the three of them headed off for Ichiro's grandfather's house. Upon arriving, the other two noticed how small it was as each of them had come from larger families, and were used to there being more people in the house. By now, it was already dark as the sun had set some time ago, so the lights were on outside.

It was a small home, clearly suited to a single family as it had just a few rooms, and only two bedrooms.

Ichiro knocked on the door a bit before someone came to answer the door. He was a frail old man, worn from the afflictions of the world both physically and emotionally. He looked first at Ichiro, and smiled a bit, and then his facial expression changed as if he was remembering something from a time long passed. He then looked at Akane, who tried to shrink back a bit due to her nervousness around strangers. After that his eyes settled on Ryo, and he sighed heavily. These actions confused the young teenagers that were standing in front of the door, as they could only guess what it was the old man was remembering in their faces.

"So Ichiro, you've come back, and you've brought friends." The old man began, smiling. "I don't think you've ever brought over any friends." And then he sighed, as there was nothing he could do to change the past. He was an old man, he should have learned that by now, but he still remained happy for his grandson as he was finally beginning to change. "Why don't you three come inside for dinner? It isn't that late, and your parents shouldn't be expecting you until later."

Akane was about to ask how Ichiro's grandpa would know something like that before she was interrupted.

"I have a lot of experience, but it's because Ichiro took this test last year, but instead of finding the objects, he told me that his teammates gave up. The jonin from last year was watching, and told the other two that they would have to go to the civilian academy, but Ichiro could come back to the ninja academy for when they held the next genin test."

Ryo hesitated at first to accept the man's invitation, but seeing as though he really didn't want to turn down his invitation for to him it seemed as though they never got visitors.

"I'll join you for dinner" He spoke, and then he paused realizing that he was never told what they would be eating. "What _is_ for dinner?"

"I prepared soba, and fish. Would you like some?" The man responded.

"Soba please, no fish." Ryo replied.

"And for you…" he started, the end trailing off. "Akane" she responded. "And for you, Akane?"

"I'll have whatever. I'm really hungry." Akane responded emphatically.

After hearing the two children, Ichiro's grandfather belted out a hearty laugh. "Well, dinner it is then."

A scene with two waterfall ninja present unfolds inside the village leader's residence. One man is kneeling before the other, who is seated in a raised status, physically representing his jurisdiction over the kneeling man. The kneeling man began to sit up before speaking.

"My leader, I do not believe that they should become ninja as I fear they don't have what it takes to bear the burden of such a career." He said, and it was the distinctive voice of Yoshiro, not too deep and not too high, but was raspy. A voice that sounds as if it had seen the world.

The raised figure sighed. "I'm sorry Yoshiro, but I'm afraid I have to tell you we cannot risk failing anyone this year, for this year's graduating class was small, only two eligible teams." The figure responded, revealed to be the leader of the village, Hisen.

"I understand great leader but," The jonin growled out, before composing himself "I do not want to be the one responsible for causing their deaths, they're going to get themselves killed at this rate. You're the leader of the village, would it not be in our best interest to have as many able-bodied ninja as we can have?"

At this, Hisen rubbed his forehead before starting his response "Look, I'll make you a deal." This confused Yoshiro, who was expecting the village leader to make gambles like this. "Take them on for a year, and train them. If they meet your expectations at the end of that time, they're staying ninjas. But if they do not meet your expectations, do what you want with them." He finished, clearly stressed out from having to deal with the village's problems.

Hisen was beginning to get up there in years, and was wondering who should hold the mantle of being the village leader if he were to become unable to lead the village or suffered an accident. Yes, there was his son, but Shibuki did not seem like the one who would be able to lead given his current age and abilities. There was his advisor Suien, a former jonin who had been pushed into the career of advisor out of necessity, but he didn't trust Suien enough to become the leader quite yet.

Yoshiro clearing his throat caused Hisen to startle a little, jolting him out of the thoughts he was running through before apologizing and telling the jonin he was able to leave.

Yoshiro was walking down the street with his hands in his pockets wondering what kind of thing he would talk to his friend's students about. He knew that he had to come up with some kind of test to make the students believe that they had passed because he didn't have it in him to tell them that their team was going to be some kind of experiment to see whether or not they would be ready for the ninja life.

As he was walking towards the restaurant where he would inevitably meet the chunins, he was approached once again by Rina. "Doesn't this remind you of when you me, and Suien were placed on a team, and we had to complete these bogus tests?"

"Well, Rina, I think you'd know most of all." He teased "After all, you were the one who cost us that scroll."

Rina fake-pouted a little. "But you were the fun one, Yoshiro. What happened to that guy?"

Yoshiro made a face at that. "Why are you here again, Rina?" He asked somewhat tiredly, but curious as to why she kept dropping in on him.

"Probably trying to rub it in that my team is better than yours, they already passed their examination" She bragged. "By the way, where are you going now?"

"I'm meeting up with Kato's students." Rina's face started to scrunch together in confusion, as she didn't seem to remember the name. Yoshiro looked at her confusedly because he was sure that she would remember him.

"Kato? I don't remember him. Who was he again?"

"Really? You went on a mission with him about a month ago." It was then that Yoshiro remembered that Kato was a quiet man who never gave out his name lightly, only to those he considered his friends. He was a good shinobi though, despite being very reclusive and keeping mostly to himself. He needs more friends. He could only think about his comrade for so long before his companion responded.

"Kato… Still doesn't ring a bell." Rina replied, oblivious to the mistake that Yoshiro made regarding the identity of one of the village's secret agents.

"Oh, right," Yoshiro rebounded with a nervous chuckle "I forgot he mostly kept to himself. Doesn't give out his name too easily."

"Well, I have to go." He continued. "Kato's students are waiting."

The sun was out, and shining. It was the perfect day for spending time outside. Yoshiro was sitting in his clearing and was waiting for his students to arrive. The chosen method for wasting time was watching the clouds and thinking over the future for himself and his team. _Rina is a nice girl,_ he thought, _maybe I should try to be something more than friends with her._ This led to a series of uninvited thoughts about Rina that he didn't need. _Careful Yoshiro, we're ninja. However, there will be plenty of time we'll have to stay in the village while our students are doing D-missions._ Either way, Yoshiro decided that he would try to focus on the task at hand: figuring out what his team should specialize in, and how to train them.

He thought he had more time to think as the sounds of Akane and Ryo arguing snapped him out of his thoughts, as they came walking into the clearing.

"No one needed to know that Akane. We could have lived our whole lives without needing to know that."  
"Well, too bad. Now you know. "

"We're here"  
"Why do we keep ending up having to walk here together?"  
"Because, _Ryo_ , you still don't remember where this place is."

"Oh yeah."

The chorus of noise that so assaulted Yoshiro caused him to jump to action as he was awakened out of a half-asleep state.

"Alright, shinies, settle down. No need to fight each other just yet." He said addressing the situation trying to keep them focused on his intentions for them for the morning.

"Today you're going to have to prove you can work as a team because the individual reports I got concerning your abilities was, to say the least, less than expected." This caused Ichiro and Akane to become confused, while Ryo was sent into a depressive state at the fact that he had been captured by the chunin so quickly. Inside, however, Yoshiro was laughing to himself as he was just toying with the young ninja, trying to get them to believe a certain narrative to make this next challenge for them even harder. He liked moments like these. Messing with ninja out on the field isn't a good idea because it might lead to unnecessary deaths, but in the village it was more acceptable.

"Anyway, Ichiro, Akane. You two are the most suited to become ninja from the abilities that you have shown during your first test." Yoshiro took a breath before continuing. "Yet, I believe that all three of you possess some kind of potential, so I decided to let you come today for _my_ test."

"This is confusing." Ryo blurted out, unable to contain his thoughts. "I mean, you've never really explained anything, and now we only have to guess what the test is."

Yoshiro just laughed at this. The reaction only started the three, and they became increasingly scared.

"Your task is to defeat me. You have 5 minutes to prepare. I will then evaluate your team, and decide whether or not you will become ninjas."

At that, Yoshiro moved off toward the other side of the clearing to allow his potential students time to prepare whatever plan they'll come up with. He was not concerned in the slightest that they could beat him. That was not the point of the exercise. In order to come up with a strategy, the three had decided to go through what tools they had amongst themselves to effectively gauge what they could accomplish.

"Ichiro." Akane whispered

"Yeah" He answered

"Why don't you have kunai knives with you? I mean, you only have senbon and shuriken." She asked, having been told by the instructors that the tools were useful.

"Too bulky. My technique won't work well with them." He answered.

"What would that be?" she prodded, trying to find out more about her teammate  
Ichiro shrugged, making Akane unsure of what to do next. She had tried to ask about his abilities, but it only left more questions as to what exactly he did.

'What does she know,' He thought. 'I bet she doesn't even know how to properly use senbon needles. I have to keep these things to myself if I am to be able to become a strong ninja to be able to find my brother.'

The truth was, Ichiro grew up with a kekkei genkai, the metal style. His mother had wind style chakra, but never went down the path of a ninja, while his father had earth style chakra, and was a proficient jonin. However, losing both of his parents caused him to become distant as a child, and the only thing that kept him going was the quest to find his brother who was a chunin that had gone MIA during a mission near the border with the land of Stone, which is what sparked an anger towards the village, as he believes that the village caused the disappearance of his older brother. The event happened several years ago, and the report of his death has yet to be confirmed. Having gone MIA, he was put in the bingo book to be brought back to the village _alive_. If nobody had found him within the next two years, it was assumed that he was either dead, had no intention of returning, or had become a missing ninja, and his bingo book entry would be updated to dead or alive.

"… Well, okay then." Akane conceded. Before trying to come up with a strategy. "We should probably attack together because we tried to act by ourselves last time, and that left both of you tied up. Ryo, what kind of abilities do you have?"

"I'm pretty good at genjutsu. I mean, my scores were pretty good." He boasted, trying to impress Akane.

"Nobody cares, Ryo." Ichiro interrupted, deflating Ryo's ego.

"Alright, time's up!" Yoshiro yelled. "No more time for planning. If you do not come after me with full intentions, then you will fail, and be unable to pass the test."

This alerted the three genin and they became worried as they had only gone through what stuff they had and basic abilities. There was no more time to think of an actual strategy to go through. They were now on their own without a plan. They had to improvise.

Yoshiro stood in the clearing, preparing himself for the inevitable onslaught that would be brought upon by the three genin. Having been trained to be a jonin, his senses and reaction time would far exceed his pupils, so they did not stand much of a chance. Though again, the point had to be made: That wasn't the point of the test. The point of the test was to see if the students were capable of completing a mission together.

"I have to do this, I need to win. AHH" A voice yelled, before it became increasingly closer. "I'm going to become a ninja!" The voice was revealed to be Ryo, who had apparently forgotten the whole 'team' part of Akane's suggestion, and decided to take victory for himself. He launched a few kunai at Yoshiro while he was running towards him to try to force Yoshiro to do something. Akane then came out of the woods and engaged Yoshiro in taijutsu.

The truth was, Ryo was terrible at taijutsu, and did not want his 'enemy' to find out that he was so bad, so he tried to stay as far away from his future sensei at all costs. By doing so however, he told jonin everything he had intended to keep secret from him.

During this whole time, Yoshiro was just being laid back, looking at the clouds. He had a far-off expression on his face and was not engaged in the task at hand, thinking of something far away. When Akane had come upon him, he dodged out of the way of her initial attacks, placing her in the path of Ryo's kunai, which lodged themselves in her back, and she collapsed.

Ryo was worried about her health, and scared she would be hurt. Yoshiro was not worried in the slightest, which angered Ryo. Ichiro, on the other hand, had not witnessed it, because he was currently behind Yoshiro, so he had not seen her get involved.

"That was pretty pointless, _shiny_." Yoshiro

Ryo ran to Akane to see if she was fine, and began pulling out the kunai from her back. Yoshiro took a few steps towards the two of them, before the third member of their team emerged from the ground in front of him. This caused Yoshiro to stop, look at Ichiro, then cock his head before beginning to plan something to deal with him, but kept his expression the same throughout the sequence of events.

Ichiro did not have much time, he'd have to make sure his attack hit his new sensei so he could buy more time for his other teammates to get out of there. He held no grudges against them, but was not particularly close to them either, despite his grandfather's insistence that he should become closer to the people at the academy.

"Hey," he said to them "get out of here." This alerted Ryo to the situation before trying to pick up Akane to take her away from the situation. Thankfully she was lighter than Ichiro.

Ichiro was severely under matched in this situation. Nevertheless, the boy was still overconfident, and wanted to defeat Yoshiro by himself. Assessing the battlefield, he did not find anything that could help him, so he ran into the woods after his teammates.

Akane would not be very helpful in her current status, being injured, he thought to himself, running through the trees trying to figure out where his teammates were.

"You should have made a plan." Yoshiro scolded from somewhere above him.

Looking up, Ichiro saw what looked like Ryo hunched over a figure that he presumed was Akane, with Yoshiro standing over both of them.

"Now that I've captured your teammates, you've…" He started to say, but was interrupted as a flurry of kunai erupted from somewhere deeper in the forest, forcing him to dodge.

This would not be the best course of action, as it allowed an opening for Ryo to start tying up the older ninja, at which point the three genin surrounded the older man, announcing their victory.

"But Akane, weren't you right here?" Yoshiro stated, before he got a good look at "Akane" who was revealed to have just been a doll dressed up to look like Akane.

"Alright. You three pass." Yoshiro sighed in defeat before speaking again "But this is only just the beginning. I went easy on you three, don't expect the real world to do the same."

The realization that they were finally ninja was taken in turn, eliciting a different reaction in each of the now genin. Akane was ecstatic, and couldn't control her happiness that her diligent training had finally paid off. Ichiro simply nodded. But Ryo felt as if he hadn't contributed anything at all to their team.

"Alright. Now that you are official genin of the hidden waterfall, I will lay out my schedule that I expect you three to diligently follow." Yoshiro stated sternly. "For the time being, the weekly schedule will go as follows: two days for training, followed by one day for missions; then two more days for training, and another day for missions. The last day will be considered a free day, and you can do whatever you want with that."

After Yoshiro dismissed them, Akane and Ichiro immediately headed out leaving Ryo behind with their sensei.

"Yoshiro sensei?" The last remaining genin asked.

"Hm?" The jonin responded, turning to the source of the voice.

"I feel as if I haven't contributed anything to the team. Ichiro at least understands the theories and the techniques, and is able to execute them while Akane doesn't understand theory, but yet is able to flawlessly use and execute the academy techniques... however I only understand the theory. I was unable to use the academy jutsu to any use."

"Right now, focus on what you are interested in. Strengthen what you are already good at, and your teammates can cover your weak spots for the time being, but that is no excuse to train your execution of the techniques. Remember: tomorrow I will get to you three my schedule for the time being."

And with that, Yoshiro formed a handsign and disappeared in a teleportation jutsu, leaving Ryo all by himself.

"Developing something from what I'm interested in…." Ryo said to the wind.


End file.
